1. Field of the invention
The present invention relates to electronic device testing systems and methods, and particularly to a system and method which can test hardware devices of a computer.
2. Prior Art of the invention
Original Equipment Manufacturing (OEM) in the computer industry includes the manufacturing of all kinds of components and products, such as motherboards, Central Processing Units (CPUs), Compact Disc Read-Only Memories (CDROMs), and modems. Customers continue to demand increased performance and reliability of the products purchased, and OEM manufacturers need to ensure that their products meet high quality standards. OEM manufacturers routinely conduct numerous functional tests on the finished products before the products are shipped to customers.
Nowadays, function testing has become very important in the field of motherboard production and computer assembly. There are all kinds of test software tools available for testing computer products. Some of these utilities focus on a particular device such as a hard disk drive and its associated control electronics. The art of these utilities has been disclosed in literature such as U.S. Pat. No. 6,393,588 issued on May 21, 2002 and entitled “Testing of USB Hub.” The patent discloses a test apparatus for testing the function of a USB (Universal Serial Bus) hub under the control of a USB host computer. However, this test apparatus and like tools can only test one kind of computer product. They are not intended to test all kinds of computer products. Many OEM manufacturers produce a variety of computer products, and need a testing system and method which can be used to test all the computer products produced.
Accordingly, what is needed is a hardware device testing system and method which readily provides functional testing of all kinds of computer products.